When I watch CBS (Time Warner Cable) there are intermittent pops - tonight during the National News was particularly annoying. Does not happen on other channels. Any idea what could be causing this anomoly?

Katie Couric.

BUT, seriously?

Bryant Gumbel.

Broadcast audio has all kinds of things that can cause that type of glitch.

It's probably the satellite up-link (streaming audio/video data packs) having sync problems.

I've done a good bit of television broadcast work (and I have a lot of friends in that industry) and it's fast, hard work that's prone to problems. You have a ton of redundancy, but sometimes it all goes to hell.

It's very stressful work when it's a live broadcast. You wouldn't believe how chaotic and noisy the audio room is. Producers yelling in your ear through the monitors, trying to cue the next audio feed etc. You get paid pretty well but man is it taxing!

Those pops can be really nasty through a nice HT sound system!

The nightly news is a live (with a small delay) feed.

Back in the day of the big satellite dishes you could watch the network feeds of news broadcasts, and when they would go to commercial, you would see the anchors messing with their hair, picking their nose, etc.

Must see tv!

Bryant Gumbel is a smart man.

Rob, I meant that she is a source of annoying anomalies. Not anything else.

Tom Blowchow

Wellll...if that is the spirit of it...

The pops are reproduced quite accurately by the 60's!

I just bought a secondary TV that has internet capability. On one of the Internet sites (Blip TV - I think) there are reruns of the Dana Carvey show. He has an excellent impression of Blowchow that had me howling.

I broke an amp listening to high frequency square waves (don't ask); loud pops are not kind.

Chris, I have that CD, too. The High Frequency Square Waves Greatest Hits.


I normally don't go for greatest hits albums, but there is just too much filler in the rest of their catalog.

Sean: